Microbiome Insights, Inc. has announced the opening of its new laboratory on the campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC). The company, a leading end-to-end service provider for microbiome DNA sequencing and bioinformatic analysis, has expanded into its new state-of-the-art lab in order to meet the needs of over 100 clients.
“We have experienced rapid growth in our business and across the microbiome testing industry,” says CEO Malcolm Kendall. “This move is a major milestone for our company and helps us meet the needs of our growing client base, to deliver the high-quality service they have come to expect from us.”
Founded by two world-leading microbiome researchers, Drs. Brett Finlay and Bill Mohn of UBC, Microbiome Insights has grown rapidly since its incorporation in 2015—supporting over 200 microbiome studies across academia and industry. The new laboratory, located in the UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences Building, enables the company to expand its capacity, hire additional laboratory technicians and initiate clinical laboratory (CLIA) certification.
Brad Popovich, former Chief Scientific Officer at Genome British Columbia and Chair of Microbiome Insights’ Board of Directors, says, “The emergence of leading companies like Microbiome Insights is a sentinel for the growth of the microbiome testing marketplace; they are following a similar pattern of accelerated growth the field of genomics testing experienced over the past two decades.”
Microbiome Insights marked the opening of the new laboratory on May 28th with a reception and microbiome poster competition. Dr. Julian Davies, one of the scientists that spearheaded the NIH Human Microbiome Project (HMP) and Chair of the HMP External Scientific Board until 2015, spoke about the importance of microbiome research and the unique benefits of a UBC-based microbiome testing company.